Environmental Factors Contributing to Stunting among Under Six Years Old Children: A Scoping Review IntroductionStunting among young children is a serious public health issue worldwide. Stunting is also one of the major risk factors for poor physical and mental development of these children. It is known that children’s health and wellbeing are a result of exposure to unhealthy environment and a lack of stimulating activities especially in the low- and middle-income countries ultimately leading to the increase in the number of stunted children. This scoping review aims to identify environmental factors that contribute to stunting less than six years old children.MethodsIn this review, PRISMA-ScR checklist to search Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science databases. We included all original articles published between 2018 and 2022 and written in the English Language using combination of primary keyword (child*) and its MeSH and synonyms for population, and two secondary keywords (environ*) for exposure and (stunt*) for outcome as searching strategy. By using PRISMA extension for scoping reviews, 65 articles were reviewed and finally 25 eligible studies were included.ResultsThe included studies showed that lack of cleanwater access, poor sanitation, and poor hygiene practice were associated with higher risk of stunting among these children. Improper solid waste management, area of residence and type of housing, poor quality of cooking fuels and poor air quality, presence of intestinal parasitic infection and increased blood lead levels, were also noted as potential environmental factors that affect stunting.ConclusionsInvestment in infrastructure to provide safe and clean water and adequate sanitation facilities in communities with expanded health promotion activities focusing on hygiene practices and waste management may thus stunting and improve children’s health outcome.

Introduction: Air pollutants, including PM2.5, are an increasing threat to public health. Studies have reported the adverse effect of PM2.5 exposures during pregnancy on neurodevelopment in children. We performed a narrative review using the PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases from 2017 to 2022 using keywords such as prenatal, particulate matter, neurodevelopment, and children. This review aims to identify symptoms of impaired neurodevelopment in children associated with prenatal PM2.5 exposure, the association between the timing of prenatal exposure PM2.5 and symptoms of impaired neurodevelopment in children as well as other factors that may influence the association of prenatal PM2.5 exposure and symptoms of impaired neurodevelopment in children Methods: A total of 25 articles were included in this review. Results: Symptoms of neurodevelopmental impairment associated with prenatal exposure to PM2.5 include language, speech, and communication symptoms; motor skills; behaviour and social skills; memory as well as learning/cognitive symptoms. Neurodevelopmental impairments were associated with exposure to PM2.5 across all three trimesters with impairment in communication and behavioural domains predominating in those exposed during the first trimester. Conclusions Generally, males were more susceptible to having neurodevelopmental impairment symptoms compared to females. More information regarding the effect of prenatal PM2.5 exposure on neurodevelopmental domains of children will support public health policies that reduce air pollution and improve children’s health.